Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

jennystarpepper

Congratulations on the job, nice to hear you are feeling better. x 

Cornish_mum

Congratulations on promotion that’s great; glad research is going well too- such a boost!

I think pickling is the best thing to do with cucumbers. Am jealous as I only had one plant (very poor germination) and we haven’t had enough to eat fresh. 

We are a double USS family and I can’t work out what all the changes will mean for us. I am mainly worried about annual allowance (nice problem to have) and don’t have all the info I need to work out what will happen so am taking a wait and see approach.

ElmoR

Morning all, hope everyone is well.

It's coming up for the year anniversary of the mortgage free date, :)so was thinking about finances and MFWs. Has it made an impact? Oh yes, indeed. The frugality mindset relaxed slightly but we are still squirreling a lot of money away each month, into investments rather than the mortgage. Even with a slow year in the investments, they've crept up in value by a few percent in addition to the large wodge that's gone in. FILs picks in the H&L pot have lost value, the passive funds I picked have all gained. In fact, I stopped drip feeding into the FILs picks last month, mainly because we needed some extra cash for bills and that seemed like the sensible one to cut.

The new role at work has been good so far, probably still honeymoon period. Dare I say it, I have been happier. Busy, but productively so. The challenge will be keeping my own research work alive. Having one day a week set aside for that doesn't seem to work, even though I reserve it in my calendar people still schedule meetings in there. Also, I have some incoming nonsense and it fogs up my headspace for a day or two, cancelling out that reserved time. Grrr. Need to get better at focusing and shutting out occasional shenanigans.

The role comes with a salary bump, flying directly to the pension pot and we had a 1% pay rise (big wow but better than the poke in the eye last year) last month too, also now flying straight to the pension pot. We weren't used to having it, so best tuck it away and not get used to having it

It's been a spendy few months, car services, multiple vet trips, dentists, and now opticians in a couple of weeks too. We coughed up a three year car service package for our two cars which dented the emergency savings pot but will now help us going forwards. Just need to build the emergency pot back up again over the next few months. Petrol bill higher with more campus working and also uni open day trips. I fixed the gas/electricity tariff in May so am feeling relaxed about that for now. We started building up the prepper supplies in the garage/freezers again, getting ready for brexit shock waves part two.

Left the spreadsheets alone with only light touch updates for a while. The various, positive, changes are still making it hard to see how each month pans out. Makes sense to free wheel a bit til after the seasonal holidays probably. Go a little bit mad?

DH and DD well. Menagerie all well. One moggy injured their paw and the pooch needed a hormone test to rule out a health condition that can sometimes affect her breed. All good there though. She's become very barky and has teenage strops now though.

Garden and greenhouse is snoozing now. Though the grass may need one more mow?...

I'm wondering where MFW's go after this point! Off into the horizon?

Take care all, ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

Good to hear from you ElmoR, and glad things are going well! New role sounds positive, even if it is tricky to get your own research in (isn't that always the way? Most vexing) Good to hear entire household is healthy

No idea where MFWs go from here! I'd just stay here if I were you Not going to be MF for a long time myself so sticking my fingers in my ears and refusing to think about it... 

ElmoR

Hello all,

Approaching the end of the year (what a year! ). Time to do the annual stock take, reflection, set goals etc. In many ways, this is an 18 year stock take!!

The aim of the long finances game hereabouts was to get ready for the chicky/DD turning 18 years old and support her in whatever comes next. She'll be 18 next month She has unconditional offers for a couple of unis So looking like uni it is from Sept next year.

The mortgage was culled in Nov 2020. Since then the money has gone largely into the DC part of the (up in the air) pension, slashing my tax and NI payments. £12002.77, to be exact, ( ) went into the work DC pension pot. Another £6k went into a second van (target retirement date 5 years beyond my wishful date) SIPP. A further £2.5k went into a H&L SIPP, using mostly FIL's suggestions. Also added £6k into a Van S&S ISA (LS60) and another £2k into DD's new Van S&S (LS80) ISA. 2021 was the year of making hay. And we made a lot of hay! Very pleased indeed.

2022 is going to need to be a bit fluid. First part of the year will involve the making hay strategy up til September 2022, then I'm expecting the student support payments of some level/description.

DD is well set up - paid all her child benefit and most birthday/Christmas monies into her child trust fund/Junior ISA from as soon as she was born. She gets control of that giant lump in a month, a grand total of £35k (where is the blue screaming emoji when you need it?). It's not enough for a Tesla car, but I'm hoping that she will leave it alone to act as a deposit on a home in the future. Fingers crossed!! I've explained that she should open a LISA at 18 (thinking of the Bell S&S one), and take some chunk (how much??) out of the maturing JISA to add into an adult S&S ISA (another Van one), but then I get confused - 17/18 year olds are allowed extra allowances due to some loop hole, but damned if I can wrap my head around it all. You can transfer them around too. Less than 4 weeks to decide...definitely need to get the maturing cash ISA money reallocated though - it plunges to 0.45% interest rate on maturity (another screaming emoji here). I suppose, if she isn't going to buy a home for another 5 years plus (?), she could place it into a Van LS60? Too much risk for that timescale?

The other topic I need to wrap my head around is the student finance part. MSE seems to advise that the young person takes out max fees/loan finance and don't worry about it - no interest starts to accrue until they graduate and earn above a certain threshold? Or does interest accrue from year 1/day 1??  Part of me is tempted to pay for as much of her accommodation/living as I can (this is the debt=never never paranoia issue), to reduce her final debt, but then we lose the potential interest gains had it been invested instead. Eight months or so to wrap my head round this and come up with a plan...

For the finance plan of jan-sept 2022 - that also needs some fine tuning. The DC overpayments are very high (set at 21% just now) and have been a stretch. The past few months I cut back to very little going into the FIRE SIPPs. The tax and NI savings make it a no brainer, but I might need to keep it untouched til age 60. A bridge of some sort is needed and that was the other SIPPs/ISA part. I've also been naughty and raided the emergency pot to sort Christmas out. This suggests that the current rate of savings/investments has gone beyond what we can manage, so some tweaking needed...It's that balance between the work DC pot and the FIRE bridge pot that needs some thought. Keeping my salary in the 20% tax threshold makes sense though, so that sets a bar of sorts.

Lots to ponder, but a lovely crossroad to be at. Many years hard graft coming to fruition - hope that is helpful mapping out for those of you also with little 'uns.

Enjoy the holidays all

ElmoR xx

South_coast

Ooh, lots going on with you! How exciting to think that you've grown an adult 😀!

A lot's changed with student loans since I took mine out (2002), but mine definitely started accruing interest on the date I received the first instalment 🙁 With a LISA you're capped at a £4k maximum per year, so DD could fill that and then still be able to have a foot in other camps. Lots of exciting planning to do!

chicker

That's an interesting read from the perspective of someone with a 20 month old DD! I'm barely earning one quarter of my previous salary but it's reassuring to think that I won't be this poor forever 😂

FWIW I don't even think about my student loan. It was just like an extra tax when I was working more. I'm not earning enough to pay it currently and I worked out years ago that I will never pay it off and the advice is to ignore it... I was at uni from 2004-2008 so just avoided top-up fees and I know they have changed since then but I think the mse advice is still the same.

It will be interesting to follow what you decide to do next!

Chicker

ElmoR

Thanks for dropping in @South_coast and @chicker

Grown an adult I like that!

Should have said that she passed her driving test a couple of weeks ago too - more screaming blue head emoji here. My car insurance went up by £1000+ for the year. Bl00dy h£ll. She needs to build her confidence though, so we've a grand plan where she drives us into work and home again (assuming schools and unis stay open) twice a week until Sept...the two locations are across the road from each other and about 8 miles from home, adding in rush hour traffic, this should help her practice...not sure what it will do for my nerves! We have the P plates on.

Done some research/reading. The MSE line on the student finance still seems to be the same - take it all and don't worry about it unless you'll become a high earner (which I doubt applies here). Applying for it seems relatively straightforward. Not sure whether to add the absent father details? He hasn't been part of her life, or paid a bean, since 2015, so it's tempting to cut him out of the process and save the aggravation. But then he is probably hoping for that. He stopped contributing because he said his circumstances had changed - not earning etc - but I found his CV online and he's been in employment all along. Hmmm. Mostly in another country, which complicates matters. Not sure what to do with that knowledge really. It's like a large wound that has mostly healed and not sure pulling the scar apart is going to help or drag us all into a negative quagmire?

The age 16/17 years ISA allowance solved itself - we don't actually have any extra £20-40K, beyond the current pot value, to stick in one, so problem gone

Got parent issues now though. Anyone know of any good book/article recommendations on dealing with a parent with dementia that is being woo-ed by someone in their temporary care home? It seems to us that he is in a vulnerable position and is declaring undying love for someone he met a couple of weeks ago and doesn't know their surname. In the meantime, my DD is now looking at an 18th birthday where neither her father nor grandfather acknowledge it since they are both so busy with others. That is going to leave a psychological dent? Maybe DH (step dad) and I need to start thinking about how we mitigate for these...

Grown an adult S_c, but still dealing with associated adults who behave like children !!

There'll be a book or articles out there for this though...hopefully...

ElmoR xx

Cheery_Daff

That's tough ElmoR (sorry, i should say I did like your review of the year, or the last 18 years!)

I have no good suggestions, but with your parent, I do know it's pretty common, and often more distressing for the family than the person themselves. It's certainly a difficult one, and I appreciate this is hard to think about, but it might help to pin down what you're actually worried about. Is it seeing him with someone other than his wife? Or a worry that the other person is less vulnerable and may take advantage? Or something else? How temporary is the temporary home? Not an easy situation to deal with I appreciate xxx

powerspowers

Wow congratulations for your DD, pat on the back definitely due! 

Re Student loans. The interest is payable from the start. I found that
particularly heartbreaking when I started repayments, I think my first deductions were £11pm and the interest was £35pm! That was pre top up fees so be prepared for higher. If you are in a position to invest some of it in a way that beats the interest charged you’d be on to a winner. Is DD interested in the finances? Neither of my parents were and I feel I’ve had to catch up as an adult.